Articles in "Community"

Almost half a million people visited the Ogden Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during its two-month open house, and 16,000 youth joined in a cultural celebration the day before its rededication. Such a massive event takes many hands, and more than 50 Morgan adults rose to the occasion.
Porterville resident and former Morgan County Councilman Craig G. Fisher, named to the fifth quorum of the Seventy in 2010, oversaw the temple’s public open house and cultural celebration as chairman of the church’s rededication committee. His wife, Julia, was at his side through much of his labors.
After being released as bishop of the Enterprise ward this spring, Brent Halls was called as Fisher’s executive secretary specifically for the Ogden Temple rededication events. His responsibilities included coordinating communication and updates with 73 stake presidents and other assigned representatives.

After more than three years, Morgan residents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can now begin attending their own temple. The Ogden Temple was closed for extensive renovation in April of 2011, and hundreds of Morgan youth celebrated the rededication of the temple at the Dee Events Center on Saturday.
More than 800 youth from Morgan County’s two stakes participated in the event either singing in the choir, dancing the hoedown or participating in various other aspects of the hour-and-a-half program.
“The Morgan and Morgan North stakes were among the leading stakes with the most youth participating,” said Brent Halls, Enterprise resident and executive secretary of the Ogden Temple Committee. “The Morgan stakes were absolutely great in their support—from the very beginning. Some stakes struggled to get the vision and to get their youth motivated,” but not Morgan!
The church’s prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, was on hand when the Morgan youth performed. Elders Jeffrey R. Holland and David A. Bednar accompanied him.

Nearly 70 years after Lewis Frongner worked with other military men and women to save the world and fought with valor in World War II, he took the trip of a lifetime to the memorial built in the veterans’ honor.
On Thursday, Sept. 18, the Morgan resident joined 65 other veterans from around the state in taking a once- in-a-lifetime trip to the nation’s capital to see the World War II Memorial. The group of heroes joined together in a hangar at the Utah National Guard for a celebration before departing.
The send-off ceremony was presented by Major General Jeffrey Burton, the Adjutant General Utah National Guard. Celebrate America Stardust Singers welcomed the veterans, and Governor Gary Herbert addressed the noteworthy group at the Salt Lake Airport before they embarked on their journey. The vets then enjoyed the red carpet treatment.
Frongner said this was the first time he has ever ridden in a big airplane.
While in flight the vets received a mail call just as they had years ago in the service. Their families had written letters before the flight to be handed out to the men and women being honored.
From the red carpet beginning throughout the rest of the trip, they were treated like royalty. “They were honored and celebrated everywhere they went,” Frongner’s son Randy said. Randy accompanied his dad for the entire trip. Each vet was able to bring a companion called a guardian to experience the entire Honor Flight and provide support.

The political and economic climate lately has many in Morgan asking about their local businesses. It is a common occurrence to read weekly and even daily “Who does appliance repair in Morgan?” and other similar posts on local facebook pages. It is clear Morgan wants to shop local, and many residents don’t even realize Morgan is home to over 600 businesses.

The trap shoot put on by the Morgan FFA Chapter as a fundraiser in the first of November could have gone no better. Many people throughout the community willingly donated prizes and money, while others showed up for the actual shoot to spend time with friends and family and just to have fun. It was a huge success!

Two freight trains collided Wednesday morning, causing eight cars to derail near Interstate 84 near the mouth of Weber Canyon. About 9:30 a.m., one train struck the rear of the other, something being called unusual. Two cars spilled their load of grain and fell from the tracks above almost to the interstate below. One lane of westbound I-84 was closed for clean-up efforts, which could halt rail traffic for several days. Several crews including hazmat and a U.P. team were on scene to clean the grain, debris and diesel fuel. Several Union Pacific employees sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Across the United States many great men and women are giving their time and energy for a great cause. They volunteer hoping to save lives, protect property and help out their fellowmen. Each year more and more people step up to join this worthy cause.

A couple of weeks ago an author from Morgan came into the bookstore. She asked whether we would interested in stocking her book. We have a good selection of science fiction and fantasy in the bookstore and I always like to support local authors so I told her we would be happy to. I will confess that I am a lover of science fiction/fantasy and that genre is one of the best stocked in the store. I was also looking for a good book to read over the holidays so I took a copy home to read.

Trent Jaques announced that Young Ford will be joining Ford Motor Company in its ongoing commitment to the National FFA through the Built Ford Tough collegiate scholarship program. For the 2013-2014 school year, Young Ford will be helping one local student attend the college of their choice.

In order to move forward with grant funding to restore portions of the Weber River near the fairgrounds, Trout Unlimited and the DWR need the Morgan County Council’s nod of approval. The council unanimously gave that nod last week, contingent on the county attorney’s review.

American Legion Post 67 and VFW Post 6154 held their annual Christmas party in the Morgan County Auditorium on Wednesday evening, Dec. 4. All veterans throughout the county were invited to attend this annual get-together for pie and ice cream and be entertained by the Nelson Brother’s Band. This was a great opportunity for members of both posts and other invited veterans to come together and get to know one another during this special time of the year.

Federal and State agencies are recruiting for wildland fire fighting positions in the 2014 wildfire season. The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and the Utah Division Forestry, Fire and State Lands are looking for wildland firefighters to start work in May of 2014. Applications are available online.

Families waited in line down the long hall of the courthouse just as they do every year waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) for their turn to see the Jolly old man Saint Nick. Hundreds of local residents look forward to this annual tradition with both excitement and nostalgia.

Morgan County offices were closed Friday when a federal judge ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage had been overturned. But Morgan County Attorney Jann Farris was watching the news with the rest of the state.

Snowbasin Resort, together with Burton Snowboards, will be celebrating the grand opening today of the Burton Dinosaur Riglet Park, a new youth-focused snowboard learning park. The park was designed specifically for children as young as 3 years old to learn how to snowboard and is located next to Snowbasin Resort’s Snowsports Learning Center. Presenting exciting features themed around Utah’s vast dinosaur history, kids will have the chance to learn balance, weight transfer, edging and freestyle basics by maneuvering over, under and around sculpted terrain of lava and mountains with “Dino” the Dinosaur and “Terry” the Triceratops.

Soldiers, innkeepers, shepherds, angels, wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. All were present at the Milton church on Dec. 12 to usher in the Christmas season as the Special Needs Institute treated the community to a special nativity pageant. As usual, the early show was a standing-room only event and the second show was packed almost to capacity.

In the spirit of the holiday season, eight amateur radio (ham) operators found a way to bring some joy to disadvantaged and shut-in children of all ages. Thanks to the world-wide range of amateur radio equipment, it’s possible for hams to communicate with other hams almost anywhere on earth, including Santa Claus at the North Pole. Thus was born the North Pole Network (NPN) which purports to use special satellite links to allow kids to talk one-on-one with the jolly old elf himself.

Drifting snow added to the ambiance as the community gathered around to count down the lighting of the Christmas tree in the center of Commercial Street at the end of the fourth annual Ol’ Time Christmas celebration on Saturday, Dec. 7. The city street looked like a scene right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie where neighbors, friends and family gather around to celebrate together.

This is the first week of a new column in The Morgan County News. We will bring you information and reviews about the books stocked by Morgan Valley Crafts. We hope that this will be helpful to you as you make your decisions about what books to choose.

Give the gift of the great outdoors this holiday with a Utah State Parks Annual Pass. Explore Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum, hike with bison on Antelope Island, ride the waves at Deer Creek State Park or visit any of Utah’s state parks and museums.

November found local Daughters of Utah Pioneers camps holding monthly meetings around the valley. Morgan Company DUP was established in April of 1918, and has now grown to include six camps, namely: Hardscrabble, Mt. Joy, Mountain View, Peterson Creek, South Morgan and Weber River. In the beginning, Porterville Camp (the first camp organized) and Peterson Camp were part of the company but have since either been combined with other camps or otherwise dissembled.

Ginny Tilby impressed the students of Morgan Elementary School with her quick drawing and talented illustrations as she introduced herself and taught lessons she has learned through sketches projected onto the wall.

Emily Childs grew up in Morgan and, as many do, enjoyed foods such as white rice and pasta. Not until her first child was born and she was looking to shed the excess baby weight did she began to look for a healthier way to eat.

Each year, thousands of groups, businesses, families and individuals come together to earn money for a great cause. Through this effort, they also exercise high levels of creativity while memorializing those they care about.

On Nov. 17, The Sons of the Utah Pioneers held its monthly meeting with keynote speaker David Marsh of the Church Curriculum Department. His topic included how the curriculum of the Church is developed, correlated, translated and disseminated throughout the world.

The soldiers lived on two or three bowls of rice a day until it was almost gone. Only one ship got through at night to unload rice and got out before morning. The soldiers felt lucky to finally get just one bowl of rice once a day for the last two or three months. Because Corregidor was under attack from the sky and sea with no hope of reinforcements, the men fought on heroically, but were forced to surrender on May 6, 1942.